Actually, Mexico was for all practical purposes a French colony at a couple of points, including during the reign of the Emperor Maximilian.
As for being a "3rd world hell hole," Mexico, despite its obvious problems, is one of the richest countries in the world -- the 11th or 13th largest economy depending on how you measure. Mexican workers work longer hours than any other people in the world. Mexico's unemployment is only 5%, although that's largely because many of its least employable and lowest skilled workers emigrate to the United States.
The Human Development Index, which aims to capture quality of life, ranks Mexico as "High" -- about the same as European Union members Romania and Bulgaria and above other emerging economic powers like Turkey and Brazil.
Puh-leaze. Have you ever been to Mexico? And I don’t mean the tourist areas protected by men with machine guns. Haiti was once a French colony too, the richest in the world. No one in their right mind would describe Haiti today as French.
But its good for you that you think that Mexico is so great because the US is being transformed into Mexico by all the tens of millions of Mexicans that live here. Your grandchildren should love it.